Photographing Ghost Towns of the Salton Sea
The Salton Sea is one of those decaying places photographers love to visit. Nature is reclaiming neighborhoods that have long been abandoned, though some holdouts continue to call the Salton Sea home. The Salton Sea stinks like sulfur and rotting flesh. The barnacle shoreline is covered in petrified fish that died gasping for breath. Streets that appear on the map suddenly end in dirt and sand. Neighborhoods are ghost towns, full of gutted homes with graffitied walls and decomposing furniture. We both used to visit the Salton Sea as kids. Rome used to go fishing for tilapia. I’d tag along with my mom and her friend who loved bird watching at the Salton Sea. You can check off hundreds of bird species from your bird watching checklist at the Salton Sea. What we didn’t visit as kids were the Salton Sea ghost towns. Our trip to the Salton Sea was prompted by my desire to practice some night photography and capture...